If council votes to have this unhealthy sewage plant, we will vote you out of office.

Walter Staton

Weddington

Plant would ruin our town

We live in a very wooded neighborhood, where we can walk outside and the air smells sweet like the mountains. In our neighborhood you can see deer, turtles, squirrels, geese, heron and other wildlife. Our neighborhood has many lakes, where residents fish daily, canoes, and parents supervise kids jumping off inflatable trampolines into the lake. There is beauty and quality of life here that is priceless.

Could we soon be wasting away in Weddington? The Woods developers propose to build a private wastewater treatment plant that will be located in the middle of their luxury community. Gray water (water from showers, sinks, laundry) and black water (sewage from their toilets) will be treated through their plant. They will irrigate their common areas and private lawns with the treated wastewater.

We have learned that residents will not be able to walk out into their yards during irrigation. They will have to take a reclaimed water safety course before they can close on their homes. If residents come in contact with reclaimed water they are asked to wash off the effected areas. Residents living in this zero maintenance community will have no control over their yards. They will not be permitted to mow, weed, or plant bushes, trees, flowers or any in ground vegetable or fruit plant. The homeowners association will maintain their yard.

IB Development LLC states that their system is safe, yet this system will not filter out all pathogens, viruses, bacteria or drug residues flushed down the toilet.

If approved this would be the first private residential wastewater treatment plant of its kind in North Carolina. Weddington, do we want to be guinea pigged with this technology?

Will nearby neighbors and Weddington have to pay the price should the plant fail or the homeowner's costs become too high to manage the plant? Will the developers be able to sell this concept to potential buyers? With the glut of million dollar homes on the market, who would want to buy in this neighborhood?

Please attend the public hearing on Monday at 7 p.m. at the Weddington High School auditorium. Please voice your opposition to The Woods private waste treatment plant.

If approved, this could set a precedent for the rest of the town to be built with wastewater treatment plants.

Upon reading the article “3 Union school board incumbents won't face opposition on ballot” from August 3, I want to set the record straight. The article stated, “Minsk… said the school system must do more to assimilate the burgeoning number of Hispanic students.” I did not make this statement. Though I recognize the seriousness of the issue, it is one of many facing the school system.

I have served on the Union County Board of Education's Monroe Middle School Task Force and this experience has given me many insights into the challenges that city schools face, including the task of educating the Hispanic population that has many ESL (English as a second language) students. Superintendent Ed Davis and his staff have made tremendous strides in addressing this need.

I am a candidate for the at-large board of education seat in Union County. My top priorities are student safety, reducing construction costs, improved communication with county commissioners, more vigorous curriculum, renovating older schools and planning for future growth.